I Miss Getting Excited about Space (or, Laughing with the Ostriches)

The past couple of weeks Savannah has been learning about space at pre-school. We know this because she comes home talking about it and drawing the planets. Currently, we have her renditions of Earth and Mars blu-tacked to our wall. Every once in a while she will say things like ‘We live on planet Earth,’ or ‘We can’t live on Mars.’ It has really captured her imagination and it’s fun to watch. Her studies of space also have funny moments, like when April and I tried to connect it one night to prayers. I said God made the planets. She, with all seriousness and quite taken about, said, ‘Nuh-uh! Kerry and Sarah Ed. made them!’ She was talking about the model planets in her nursery room!

It reminds me of myself when I was younger. We studied space in the first and second grade and I remember getting excited about it, too. I wonder when I stopped being amazed by creation. When did it become simply part of the decorations around me? I love watching Savannah find all the wonder of it.

I thought about Savannah as I read God’s speech to Job this morning. Most of the Bible has others talking about the wonders of creation, but the words in Job are God’s own. God seems as absolutely thrilled with everything God has made – things so great that for some beasts, even God has to take a big sword to be near (Job 40:19). God appears not to have lost the wonder of creation.

I loved God’s use of ‘laugh’ for the ostrich, the horse, and leviathan. The horse laughs at fear and runs right at a sword (Job 39:22). The Leviathan (whatever that is) laughs at anyone who tries to bring a club or a javelin at him. In particular, I enjoyed the way God describes the ostrich. God says, ‘It’s not beautiful, but it loves to flaps it wings as if it were. And OK, the thing is dumber than pig swill, but watch how it loves to run – it just laughs at others as it races past!’ (That’s my paraphrase of Job 39:13-18).

I hope that for as long as she can, Savannah will laugh with the ostriches at the wonder of God’s creation. And maybe I will relearn, too.

Does God’s Promise to Heal All (Our experience as a door to theology)

This morning I mused weather or not Job found a disconnect between his thoughts on wealth and the wicked before and after his calamity. Today Pentecostal theologian Robin Parry explains how experience is the starting place in theology when he says that Job had to rewrite his theology in the aftermath of the devastating events that happened to him.

Parry’s main point discusses how our experience challenges his own tradition’s theology of healing, and is well worth a read (here is just a part):

When one considers experience, the claim that “God will heal all who ask him in faith for healing” can be (a) tested, and (b) demonstrated to be false. You see, no amount of positive testimonies of people who prayed for healing (in faith) and were healed would demonstrate the truth of the claim. Such experiences are perfectly compatible with more modest claims, such as “God will heal some of those who ask him in faith.” But it only takes one instance of a person who asked in faith for healing and was not healed to demonstrate the falsity of the claim. And we do not have just one example—we have thousands of examples. And I mean examples of those who prayed for healing for themselves (or others) and who did not waver in their confidence that there would be (or was already) healing . . . and there was no healing. Such experiences demonstrate conclusively the falsity of the claim that “God will heal all who ask him in faith for healing.” I do believe that God’s endgame is to heal all and in the new creation all will be healed. But in the interim God allows and uses things that are less than the ideal to bring about his purposes. Healing in the present is a sign of the coming kingdom to be sought. But please let’s stop promising things that are not true.

I think I would add to this that there is a difference between ‘healing’ and ‘cure’. Even when God heals, all that happens does not simply vanish. Grief and illness may still take their toll. But, God is still working something deeper. But, certainly, if there is no ‘healing’ (i.e., complete and total cure), let’s stop not only telling things that aren’t true, but also saying that faith is lacking. Listen, rather than invalidate someone’s experience.

Job and All Wealth for the Wicked

This morning I finished the first month of readings in The Bible in One Year. I’m about mid-way through the book of Job and he is still battling it out with his three friends (the mysterious fourth has yet to appear). All are saying some challenging things to each other, which has me thinking.

Job challenges God with some strong accusations about the lifestyle of the wicked and God’s seeming disinterest in their accumulating so much and living so care free (Job 21). This morning, I wondered, How did Job reflect on his own wealth before his calamity? Did he ever see a disconnect between what he was saying now and what went on before? Or had he ever thought it was simply a matter of time before misfortune fell to him, a blameless person? (He did, after all, try to make sacrifices for his children, just in case (Job 1:5).) I wonder if this is why he challenged, but never cursed God.

Job gives his thoughts on the wicked as we all have done – why do so many of them seem to get away? Not all do of course, but I wonder if we (who believe ourselves to be good) often add to the wickedness by turning away or making things things worse. In the former, I think of those adverts of a couple chatting over dinner, raising their voices to ignore the horrendous sounds of an abusive relationship coming from next door. In the latter, I remember a conversation with a friend after the 9/11/2001 attacks. He detailed what our military responses needed to be. When I questioned the violence to solve this problem, he turned to me asking, ‘OK, Will, what’s the solution? You tell it to me and we will do it.’ His questions implied that non-violent solutions were naive and really offered no solutions. Only force would solve it because these people wanted to take away my freedom. Years later, there has of course been some ‘success’, but at what costs? The feelings in the middle east haven’t softened toward the west. Would God have another way to get rid tyrants if we had waited on him?

I don’t self-identify as a pacifists, but having been taught by many and being friends with many, I can’t help but have their questions rumble through my head.